Matt Hasselbeck has had a rough few weeks, even getting benched in a loss to the Atlanta Falcons. Is Charlie Whitehurst the man next season? Will the Seahawks draft a quarterback?

Head coach Pete Carroll isn’t saying, although he has given Hasselbeck a vote of confidence for the rest of this season.

“We’re going with Matt,” Carroll said. “Matt’s been our quarterback, he’s the guy that has given us a chance all throughout and gives us our best chance to finish out right, and I’m excited that, in that sense, that he’s going to pull this thing together with us.”

Hasselbeck may get a chance to finish out right, but he might be watching from his couch on Sundays next season.

The Jake Locker era ends Dec. 30 when the Huskies walk off the field after the Holiday Bowl.

While redshirt freshman Keith Price was decent as a backup to Locker this season, head coach Steve Sarkisian, himself a former quarterback, has said the competition will be wide open for the starting role next season.

Nick Montana, son of Joe Montana, redshirted this season and should compete with Price for the starting job.

Montana fits the profile of a traditional drop-back passer and might appeal to Sarkisian’s offensive sensibilities.

Locker was projected by many experts as the No. 1 overall pick for the 2011 draft before the 2010 season started. A disappointing campaign seriously damaged those prospects.

Still, Locker’s ability and athleticism are unassailable. With a better offensive line this season, things might have been different.

Sarkisian has said that Locker will restore some of his draft mojo once scouts see what he can do at the combine. But getting back to No. 1 is out of the question.

So where will he be taken? The Seahawks will be picking in the middle of the first round and could make a splash by keeping Locker in the Pacific Northwest. Locker said that would be “awesome.”

But if the Seahawks pass on him, it’s hard to predict where Locker will end up. He never quite lived up to the hype at Washington, and he’s suffered several injuries, often by no fault of his own.

Then again, if Tim Tebow can get drafted in the first round …

How will the Huskies do in the Pac-12?

The Pac-10 will grow by two in 2011, with the addition of Utah and Colorado.

Washington will play both new conference members, traveling to Utah on Oct. 1 and hosting Colorado on Oct. 15. The Huskies will not play UCLA and Arizona State.

If the Huskies continue to improve as they have over the past two season, they should be able to hold their own in the Pac-12 North with Washington State, the Oregon schools, Cal and Stanford.

Colorado was 5-7 and 2-6 in the Big 12 this year. Utah was 10-3 and 7-1 in the Mountain West. It will be interesting to see how a team coming off a weak season in the Big 12 and a team coming off a strong season in the Mountain West will do in the revamped Pac-12.

(Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com)

The Sounders get some company in the Pacific Northwest

The Sounders have been a resounding success for Major League Soccer. They’ve set attendance records and competed at a high level since their inception.

In 2011, they will be joined by the Portland Timbers and the Vancouver Whitecaps, renewing the so-called Cascadia derbies and making the Pacific Northwest the capital of American soccer.

The Timbers fired the first shot of the renewed rivalry by erecting a billboard near Qwest Field earlier this season.

The Sounders have proven to have staying power, at least over the past two seasons. The addition of the rivalries should only strengthen the brand and the buzz.

And the fans will have one more thing to get passionate about: Kasey Keller, the Sounders goalkeeper and elder statesman, will retire after the season. It’s his last chance to win a title for his hometown team.

The Mariners get another facelift

How long before Dustin Ackley is the Mariners everyday second baseman? (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

There’s no better way to forget some of the misery of the 2010 season than making wholesale personnel changes.

Eric Wedge is the new manager for the Mariners, and by midseason 2011, the team should be stocked with young talent and new faces.

It’s not clear if pitcher Michael Pineda and second baseman Dustin Ackley will make the major league team out of spring training, but both are certain to be called up at some point.

Jack Cust will be the new designated hitter. Brendan Ryan will be patrolling the middle of the infield. And Miguel Olivo will be behind the plate.

Maybe not a recipe for a postseason run, but it will be a different team. No Ken Griffey Jr. or Jose Lopez, to list a couple of names that won’t be missed from the lineup.

One name that will be missed: Dave Niehaus. The 2011 season will be the first without the Hall of Famer’s voice calling the action.

Will the NBA come crawling back to Seattle?

The New Orleans Hornets are for sale. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer really wants an NBA team in Seattle. Perfect timing, right?

Steve Ballmer

It’s not clear what will become of the Hornets franchise. Louisiana politicians are adamant that a new ownership group will be found to keep the team in New Orleans. And NBA commissioner David Stern has said publicly that he prefers to keep the team there.

But rumors have persisted that Ballmer could be considering buying the team and moving it to Seattle. Ballmer sold about $1.4 billion in stock recently.

Stern has said that he will put a priority on finding strong, stable ownership for the franchise. It can’t get any more stable then a Ballmer-led group.

But then where would the new Seattle team play? A renovated KeyArena? A new arena on the Eastside?

It will be interesting to see how it all plays out, but one thing is for sure: If the NBA does return to Seattle, it will have some grovelling to do.

The Storm won its second WNBA championship in 2010. (Joshua Trujillo/Seattlepi.com)

The Storm defends its WNBA title

The Storm opens its bid for a repeat June 4, and their faithful fans will be quick to point out that the team is the only Seattle franchise to win a championship since the 1979 Sonics.

Two, even.

And there’s no reason the team can’t compete for another title.

Stars Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird are under contract through 2011 and head coach Brian Agler anticipates both will sign extensions next year.

The nucleus is there for another run.

“Our players will be receiving an e-mail on Jan. 1 stating that the celebration is now over and we’re full speed ahead for 2011,” Agler said during a live chat on seattletimes.com. “The journey begins anew.”

Washington started the season ranked No. 11 and expected to win the Pac-10. They’ve slipped out of the Top 25, but this might be the most balanced Huskies team in years.

The Huskies are led by leading scorer Isaiah Thomas and forward Matthew Bryan-Amaning. They also have a ton of depth at the guard positions, a sharp-shooting redshirt freshman in C.J. Wilcox, a shot-blocking big man in Aziz N’Diaye and a do-everything forward in Justin Holiday.

The Huskies have all the ingredients for a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. Perhaps most important is that head coach Lorenzo Romar, at least so far, is running a 10-man rotation.

This team can beat opponents in so many ways that it should be a handful for the Pac-10 and the March Madness field.